Jonah 1

And the word of God came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

“Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and call out against it, because their evil has risen up before my face.”

But Jonah got up to run away to Tarshish from before the face of God. And he went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish, away from before the face of God. \*

But God sent out a great wind on the sea and a great storm happened on the sea, so that the ship was thinking to be broken apart.

Then the sailors were frightened, and they cried out, a man to his god. And they threw the things that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it from upon them. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and had lain down, and was deeply asleep. \*

Then the captain of the crew came to him and said to him, “What to you, sleeping? Get up! Cry out to your god! Maybe that god will notice us, and we will not perish.”

Then they said, a man to his friend, “Come, and let us cast lots, so that we may know on whose account this evil is happening to us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. \*

Then they said to him, “Please tell us on whose account this evil is happening to us. What is your occupation, and where do you come from? What is your country, and from which people are you?”

So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear God, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land.”

Then the men feared a great fear, and they said to him, “What is this that you have done?” For the men knew that he was running away from before the face of God, because he had told them. \*

Then they said to him, “What should we do to you so that the sea will calm down from upon us?” For the sea was progressing and storming.

And he said to them, “Lift me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will calm down from upon you, for I know that this great storm is upon you because of me.”

But the men rowed hard to return themselves to the land, but they could not, because the sea was progressing and storming over them. \*

So they cried out to God and said, “Ah! God, please do not let us perish on account of the life of this man, and do not put innocent blood upon us, because you, God, have done just as you desired.”

So they lifted up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

Then the men feared God {with} great fear, and they sacrificed a sacrifice to God and vowed vows. \*

Now God appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the abdomen of the fish three days and three nights. \*